What’s a Monster Theme? The concept was first introduced in Dungeon Master’s Guide 2, and it’s a way to give a set of monsters a shared look and feel. This involves changes to their mechanics and lore, but unlike monster templates from the DMG 1, it doesn’t change their “quality”. Regulars remain regulars, elites remain elites, and so on.

Monster themes end up being more flexible than templates, since the monster creation rules are good enough to handle any level or quality changes by themselves.

Anatomy of a Monster Theme

Each theme has a fairly involved presentation. You get some explanation for the lore attached to that theme and how it might modify a monster. Then a line about skill changes that might apply, and finally a big list of powers.

Those powers are divided between Attack Powers and Utility Powers - you pick one of each category to add to the monster’s stat block. Nothing else about its basic stats changes, unlike with a template. If you want those to change, you can use the standard monster creation and “editing” rules to change the monster’s level or quality.

Our First Theme: Arena Bred Monster

Blood sport arenas are the most popular entertainment in all city states, and monster fighting is one of its most popular modalities. It’s common to throw recently captured wild animals into the ring, but a monster that was specifically prepared for the spectacle is a much bigger draw. Animals are specifically bred for the role; people receive special training. And both might be further modified by magic or psionics, all in the service of providing a more brutal and spectacular fight.

Monsters with this theme get a +2 to Intimidate and a +2 to either Athletics or Acrobatics.

Attack Powers

Despite the name of this category, the powers here tend to avoid having specific attack or damage figures, to better enable them to apply to monsters of any level.

  • Berserk Passage (recharge 5+) lets a monster make two basic attacks and shift half its speed at any moment in this sequence, passing through enemy spaces. It usually goes on monsters that have been made mad with hunger and pain before being dropped into the arena, though I supposed it could also be used to represent an agile duelist humanoid.

  • Bleeding Attack is a triggered power that inficst 5/tier ongoing damage (save ends) when the monster bloodies a target. It might represent serrated weapons or claws. The book recommends making it (recharge 5+) for elites or solos; by default, it’s at-will.

  • Brutal Flourish lets the monster make a free melee basic attack whenever it bloodies or defeats an enemy.

  • Death Burst means the monster has been rigged to explode! This is visible to the PCs and should be described appropriately. This power is common for monsters that have received some sort of combat implant, but could be applied even without that. By default this happens when the monster hits 0 HP, but for elites and solos it could also happen when the monster is first bloodied, where it might be combined with some other change in its stats as those implanted bits fall off. The explosion is a Close Burst 2 with attack and damage figures appropriate to the monster’s level.

  • Retaliating Stride (recharge 5+) is a move action that lets the monster move its speed and deal damage to any creature that hits it with an opportunity attack during this move. It can represent showy counterstrikes, or maybe something like implanted spikes.

  • Attached Weapons are not written up like a power, but discussed in general terms inside a text box. Many arena monster handlers like to implant extra weapons on their charges through magic. This is an excuse for your to add extra attack powers that monsters of that type don’t normally have. For example, an artillery monster could receive implanted melee weapons that give it a stronger than usual melee attack, or a brute could get an unusually accurate ranged weapon. It’s common for these weapons to break or fall off when the monster is bloodied - and this can also be combined with Death Burst variants.

Utility Powers

These are generally the fruit of long experience in the arena, representing cunning, resilience, and luck.

  • Intervening Armor represents an ability to leverage the normally useless piecemeal armor that covers gladiators by shifting so enemy attacks hit the tiny plates. It’s an Interrupt that gives +2 to AC or Reflex when the monster is hit by an attack targetting one of these defenses.

  • Necessary Betrayal is for treacherous gits who developed the habit of abusing their teammates’ trust. If the monster is hit by a melee or ranged attack while adjacent to an ally, it can swap places with the ally as an interrupt, and have the ally take damage from the attack instead. You don’t compare the attack roll against the ally’s defenses - just apply the damage directly. This power cannot be nice even by accident.

  • Shake it Off represents the ability to quickly recover one’s wits in a bout. Whenever subject to an effect that a save could possibly end, the monster can roll a save to end it as a reaction, even if this specific application cannot be ended with a save. (So it works against “dazed until the end of the next turn”, but not against “dead”).

  • Turn the Tables is a defense against forced movement. If pushed, pulled, slid, or knocked prone, the creature can trigger this reaction to stand up (if prone) and shift 2 squares.

Final Impressions

I think it’s interesting how many of the powers here can be either applied to a berserk beast of a flashy humanoid fighter that uses finesse and agility, with the final mechanical result being the same.